Customer Reviews

The Pastor's Wife (Everyman's Library (Paper))

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This is one of Von Arnim's very best novels, full of surprising wit and sometimes caustic criticism of the lonely existence of an intelligent British woman in a turn-of-the-century aristocratic German household. In particular, the childbirth scenes are chilling, and reminiscent of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, though Von Arnim typically treats the topic with more humor. The ending is as brilliant as those of her contemporary Edith Wharton.

The Pastor's Wife has been called witty and perceptive, but it goes much farther than that. Just under the surface of Von Arnim's witty, civilized prose lies a fiercely brilliant feminist novel, burning with quiet rage. Von Arnim details every step of the way by which a well-meaning English innocent, hoping only to live her dream of freedom, finds herself inescapably entrapped. A terrifying,subversive, wonderful book. It's a shock to realize this novel was written almost a hundred years ago.

The main character here, a young woman named Ingeborg, was the daughter of a strict and domineering father, a Bishop. She was raised to always follow the proper etiquette of Christian behavior and proper society. She did as she was told and never questioned or disobeyed her father. But sometimes she wanted to be free - at least for a short while - of her father's control and the confinement of her household. So, when it became necessary for her to travel to London for a week to have some dental work done, she was full of anticipation. And when she saw a poster in a shop window advertising a tour leaving for Lucerne for seven days, she impulsively joined it. It changed her life forever.

At times, I found the writing here a bit repetitive - a bit drawn out. Halfway through, I almost put it down. But I read elsewhere that I must not miss the last part of the book. They were right. Make sure you finish this book. What begins as just another good book by Von Arnim becomes a brilliant book by it's ending. And do read the introduction (although I prefer to read it after I have read the book). You learn that much of this story mirrors the Author's own life. I couldn't get this story out of my head for days.

Ingeborg Bullivant suddenly becomes possessed by the demon Rebellion and takes a week's tour to Lucerne. In the company of a ponderous German pastor, she is put into a quandary when he proposes marriage.